Do you ever read a synopsis and just feel in your bones that the book was written for you? That’s how I’ve been feeling about The Boneless Mercies by April Genevieve Tucholke. I’ve only read one full length novel (Wink Poppy Midnight) and a short story (from Slasher Girls and Monster Boys) by Tucholke, but I’ve been really taken by her writing and am really looking forward to this one.

“Frey, Ovie, Juniper, and Runa are the Boneless Mercies—girls hired to kill quickly, quietly, and mercifully. But Frey is weary of the death trade and, having been raised on the heroic sagas of her people, dreams of a bigger life. When she hears of an unstoppable monster ravaging a nearby town, Frey decides this is the Mercies’ one chance out. The fame and fortune of bringing down such a beast would ensure a new future for all the Mercies. In fact, her actions may change the story arc of women everywhere. Full of fierce girls, bloodlust, tenuous alliances, and unapologetic quests for glory, this elegantly spun tale challenges the power of storytelling—and who gets to be the storyteller.”

Are you participating in Can’t-Wait Wednesday or Waiting on Wednesday? Is this book on your TBR? Be sure to leave a link to your post in the comments and I’ll visit!

“Wink didn’t cry or anything. I don’t know why I thought she would. The Bells never cried. That’s one of the reasons they were impossible to bully.”

Can we just take a moment to appreciate how beautiful the cover for April Genevieve Tucholke’s Wink Poppy Midnight is? I absolutely adore it. The novel itself is probably one of the oddest books I’ve ever read, still the writing was flawless and the characters really interesting. You can read my full review here. Cover is linked to Goodreads.

Goodreads Synopsis:

“Every story needs a hero. Every story needs a villain. Every story needs a secret. Wink is the odd, mysterious neighbor girl, wild red hair and freckles. Poppy is the blond bully and the beautiful, manipulative high school queen bee. Midnight is the sweet, uncertain boy caught between them. Wink. Poppy. Midnight. Two girls. One boy. Three voices that burst onto the page in short, sharp, bewitching chapters, and spiral swiftly and inexorably toward something terrible or tricky or tremendous.“

**Side Note: I’m co-hosting the Comment Challenge this summer and would love it if you joined us. We’re pairing bloggers together every month and encouraging lots of commenting on each other’s blogs. If you’re interested, you can find out all the info here.**

“Every story needs a hero. Every story needs a villain. Every story needs a secret. Wink is the odd, mysterious neighbor girl, wild red hair and freckles. Poppy is the blond bully and the beautiful, manipulative high school queen bee. Midnight is the sweet, uncertain boy caught between them. Wink. Poppy. Midnight. Two girls. One boy. Three voices that burst onto the page in short, sharp, bewitching chapters, and spiral swiftly and inexorably toward something terrible or tricky or tremendous. What really happened? Someone knows. Someone is lying.“

“Sometimes people just leave, Midnight. They realize they are on the wrong path, or that they are in the wrong story, and they just go off in the middle of the night and leave.”

I finished April Genevieve Tucholke’s novel Wink Poppy Midnight and had to pause a moment afterward to ponder exactly what it was I had read. If you’re looking for a novel with a straight-forward plot, a clear focus and neat conclusion, this novel isn’t for you. Wink Poppy Midnight reads like a mystery novel with paranormal elements. You’re left guessing what is true and what isn’t, if you can believe the ghost stories and tarot card readings or if it’s just an eccentric interest for the characters. I went into this novel knowing very little about what it was about, save for the pithy synopsis on the dust jacket and it wasn’t until half way through the book that a definitive conflict emerges. But just when you think you know what is going on, you inevitably get thrown for a loop. In the end, I’m not sure I’ve fully comprehended what happened in the novel, but I’m left dazzled by Tucholke’s writing and her wayward characters.

What Wink Poppy Midnight lacks in plot it makes up for in character study. Tucholke’s three main leads are stark contrasts of one another with distinct voices and unreliable narratives. Midnight’s perspective largely takes place in the present. When the story is told through his point of view, the plot feels like it’s moving forward. This is an interesting choice because much of Midnight’s identity is a rooted in his past: his mother’s abandonment, the longing for his brother, and his tumultuous relationship with Poppy.

If you were to imagine a caricature of a beautiful, spoiled rich girl who is used to getting what she wants, you’d picture someone like Poppy. She’s unapologetic in her narcissism, cruel and calculating. A self-proclaimed bully, there isn’t much to like about her character, but her voice is the most compelling of the three. Her perspective focuses on the past and has scenes of introspection that you wouldn’t expect from someone who appears to very much live in the now. By the end of the novel, I’m not entirely sure I learned to sympathize with the character, but I did learn to see her in a different way than how she’s first presented at the beginning of the novel.

Wink’s perspective might have been my favorite. There’s an untainted innocence to her character, especially in how she views other people, that really draws you in. There’s also a dreamy element to her voice that feels fantastical as her love for stories often has her imagining the world to be very different than what it is. She and her family are delightfully strange and if this novel revolved solely around the Bell family, I wouldn’t complain.

Wink Poppy Midnight is not for every reader. Tucholke’s novel has that same atmospheric tone I usually associate with magical realism. Much of the conflict takes place within the characters themselves and for some this may feel like the story is underdeveloped. For me, the novel’s reliance on its characters, who are unlikable, strange, yet so intriguing, make it far too fascinating a story to dislike.

“Their eyes were little more than slits, and their mouths once a delicate shade of blue, were now black, stretched into gruesome O’s.”

Slasher Girls & Monster Boys was the first book I picked up for my Halloween-themed October and it was fantastic. I’m not a huge anthology fan, but this collection of horror stories was frightfully fascinating.

From my review:

“Ghosts, murderers, and death bring plenty of frights in this horror anthology. Inspired by various mediums from films to classic horror novels to music, these fourteen short stories are filled with thrills, twists, and trepidation. And just when you think you have a story figured out, the surprises are fierce yet strangely satisfying.” See my full review here.